Patches that adhere to a person's body are being used for several purposes in today's society. The configuration and use of the patch often depends upon its intended purpose. For example, a patch comprising gauze or other material can be applied to a person to cover a wound and prevent infection (i.e., it is being used as an adhesive bandage). A patch that contains medicine or other substances can be applied to a person to treat a wound or an addiction (e.g., a nicotine patch), or to counteract e.g., sea sickness. Other patches can include electronics such as sensors or integrated circuits to monitor e.g., a person's health or response to physical activity. These patches can also include communication circuitry for communicating data from the patch to an external source.
All of these patches, however, have their shortcomings. For example, single wearable adhesive bandages must be changed frequently, especially if they get wet. In addition, these bandages are contained within individual packaging that must be opened and discarded before the bandage can even be used. Thus, these patches produce packaging waste and are inconvenient for the user because he/she must carry or have access to multiple bandages if they want to properly cover a wound, etc.
Patches that include electronics have additional problems. For example, a single wearable adhesive patch having electronics or other hardware would be used once and discarded, causing all of its electronics/hardware to be discarded even if they are still functional. As can be appreciated, this can be wasteful and expensive, raising the cost of the patches (for both the manufacturer and consumer). To avoid wasting expensive components, and to reduce costs, these patches will sometimes use inferior components that could malfunction, provide low power for its circuitry, and/or low memory storage capacity—all of which are undesirable. Moreover, with single disposable patches, the equipment loses the ability to record/use data from, or share data with, other patches used on the same user, which is also desirable.
Accordingly, there is a need and desire for a better wearable adhesive patch.